4 - Creative Insight: The Redistribution Theory
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2011
Summary
… under the stress of our wish to solve a certain problem – and after our thorough consideration of various parts of the given material – sometimes brain processes tend to assume new forms or structures which, when reflected in our minds, suddenly make us see new relations and thus give us new insights which tend to bring about the solution.
Wolfgang KöhlerAn inventor, scientist or artist might work on one and the same project for a day, a week, a month, a year or many years. The thought processes associated with such extended activities are not equally creative throughout. Even when the work results in a creative product, much of what occurs along the way is analytical thinking or even habitual or routine behavior. What distinguishes creative from analytical processes is that the former are punctuated by insights, mental events in which new ideas come to mind. An extended project is likely to require more than one insight before completion. Projects vary with respect to the density of insight events, but each such event is of short duration compared to the duration of the project as a whole. I call this the Raisins in the Dough Principle.
To explain creativity is therefore to carry out three theoretical tasks: Describe analytical thinking, explain what happens in moments of insight and clarify how insight expands the power of analytical thinking.
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- Deep LearningHow the Mind Overrides Experience, pp. 87 - 129Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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